1. Field of the Invention
The apparatus of the present invention relates to a chemical coating solution that can be placed on any type of material, such as paper stock, plastic, metals, glass, cloth or any items that include a surface which will accept a coating, and a second solution placed on an applicator pad, so that when a person touches the applicator pad with his finger or stamp and then touches the treated paper, a fingerprint or stamped image will appear.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method whereby any printed document (for example, include but not limited to airline tickets, labels, checks, bonds, passports, green cards, and any other document with identification of the user or owner is critical) that has been treated with a chemical coating would react with other chemicals in an inkless fingerprint pad to form an inkless fingerprint.
2. General Background of the Invention
Paper products and security features for paper products have been used extensively for many years. Some paper products, like, for example, checks, have built in security features such as: ink caplets that explode when solvents are used to erase signatures or amounts on the check. These exploding ink caplets show up as little ink dots on the check, these dots alert the bank cashiers that the check might be altered or that it has been forged. To achieve a positive identifier (fingerprint) there are several methods available. However, to obtain a fingerprint utilizing the conventional methods of using black ink results in the messy black inks staining the hands and oftentimes, the clothing of the individuals, which s a great inconvenience and a hinderance toward acceptance in an industry.
The inkless print security fraud feature is a two step process; (1) the paper has to be treated or coated with a chemical solution that impregnates or soaks into the paper; (2) the coated paper must react with the chemical solution application pad. The process of the treated paper with the chemical application pad will allow a person to put a stamped mark, or fingerprint, or both, on a document. There are patented inkless methods, such as Vassiliade's U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,919, and other patented or proprietary methods, that can be used to achieve an inkless fingerprint.
There are security features that will allow a person to possibly identify a false or forged documents. But many of these features have to be held in certain lights (U.V.) to be seen. Because of the extra expense involved in coating and/or inspection (equipment such as U.V. lights at numerous inspection locations), some documents cannot be coated at all.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a convenient and inexpensive process of achieving coating and inspection of certain documents to provide security features. In the process and methodology of the present invention, all types of documents can be coated without utilizing special lights, or other extra features, which can be prohibitively expensive to utilize.
An example of the applicability of the need for identifying documents properly is the airline industry. Airline tickets have long been used in the airline industry as a means to allow a passenger to board an airplane. The ticket has general information on such things as name of passenger, flight number, destination, time, date, and bar codes for computer tracking. However, there is a constant problem of assuring that the passenger who is in possession of the airline ticket is in fact the person named on the ticket. In the current state of the art, as far as applicants are aware, there is no means for assuring through some personal identification on the ticket that such is the case. One such method might be the use of fingerprints which could match up between the user and the ticket. However, conventional finger printing has severe drawbacks. One is the perception of guilt from having to place one's finger print in black ink such as the police department's utilize. Additionally, the finger printing usually would result in the staining of the hands and clothing by use of the black intrusive inks. The process which would be used in the present invention would be used in airports and not in a criminal environment, therefore, the process by its very nature must be clean and non-obtrusive to the passengers.
A possible means for achieving this end is the utilization of the inkless finger printing. The inkless coating can be achieved through methods both patented and unpatented. For example, one patented method is a patent to Vassiliadels, U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,919, referred to earlier. This method could be used as well as many other non-patented methods. However, the inkless process is a two-step process. First, the item to be matched must be coated with a chemical solution. Secondly, the coated chemical solution must react with the chemical solution in the fingerprint pad. The process with the coated ticket and the inkless pad would then serve as a non-intrusive method of obtaining a fingerprint. The person just stamps the treated document with the chemical pad solution and a black, dark or color image will appear and also will allow a fingerprint to appear on the document if desired.
There are patents which have been cited in the art which address the overall features of security features, or utilizing inkless methodology. These are listed in the prior art statement submitted herewith.